Friday, January 29, 2010

Retirements, Criminals and Tiger

Starting a blog, all sorts of topics to discuss

The end of the road came for the Minnesota Vikings two weekends ago and with it, we begin the Brett Favre watch. He will have the sports world holding their collective breaths as we await his announcement to stay or leave the NFL. Media coverage will be more concerned with Brett than the Super Bowl, as he teases us by using phrases like "highly unlikely" during interviews. The bottom line is no one knows what he will do...not even Brett it seems.

It would be great if Brett takes a page from Kurt Warner, who just announced his retirement from the NFL.

Kurt will stay retired, I am calling it. Kurt has given all he can, and he also realizes that the Cardinal franchise drafted Matt Leinart for a reason (much like Green Bay did with Aaron Rodgers--the Packers knowing Favre was coming to the end of his time). Look at each team Brett has gone to since G.B.: New York Jets where he ousted slated starter Kellen Clemens. Minnesota Vikings where Tarvaris Jackson was an up-and-commer and when Favre signed with the Viks Jackson and fellow QB Sage Rosenfels had mentioned they wanted to be traded. What has Kurt done, you ask? Well he was the main man in St. Louis during his hay-day. He went to the Giants briefly until Eli Manning was drafted, for a reason, and was put into the starting slot. Kurt then went to Arizona where he was successful for a few seasons while mentoring Leinart. Now it's time to give Leinart that chance. Kudos to Warner for stepping down...hopefully for the first and final time.



Guns are for Agent 007... not Agent 0. What a fool Gilbert Arenas is! Just suspended for the season by the NBA (smart move Stern), Gilbert Arenas has put the future of his professional career in serious jeopardy by pulling a gun on his teammate in the locker room. That's right, I said pulled a gun. On a teammate. In the LOCKER ROOM! Sheesh Gilbert, learn from Plaxico Burress and keep the guns out of the arena at least! Now Plax is in jail and Gilbert isn't, probably because Plaxico's gun went off. But what kind of ego does Arenas have? Did Arenas think someone was going to pop him at work? Seriously. Who brings a gun to work, outside of a police officer?

I am sure Arenas will come back next year and play in the NBA again, but does he deserve to? I hardly think so. He has had issues with following the rules set forth by the NBA front office before and now an incident that involved the FBI should be the last straw for the former Arizona Wildcat. Some education he got. Speaking of colleges, what happened in Eugene 2 weekends ago??

Star Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli was accused of stealing from a fraternity party, a very serious crime considering the value of the stolen items. A lot of speculation as to if Masoli was even involved in the theft or not, but the longer that he remains not a suspect, the better it is for the team. Imagine what next season would look like if Masoli is/was found guilty of this crime: He would almost certainly be kicked off the team. At the very least he would be suspended for several games. That would thrust Nate Costa or Darren Thomas (the latter of which I think would be best) into starting duty. Oregon would fall out of the national championship talk and even drop out as the front runner for the Pac-10. The Ducks would lose their next possible Heisman trophy candidate as well. So, for the sake of all the Duck fans out there, let's hope we don't hear anything surrounding Masoli for a while.

The final topic today: Tiger Woods. I have made some pretty bold statements regarding Tiger Woods and his ability to be an effective golfer on the PGA when (and IF) he returns to the links. I'll go ahead and say it again: Tiger Woods will NOT win another major in his career. There, I feel better. Let me start by saying that I hope Tiger DOES win again, he is a great player and a lot of fun to watch when he is on his game. However, I do not see him being able to regain enough focus to keep up 72 holes of golf. Every reporter and their dog is going to ask Tiger about "the situation", his relationship with his wife and his reported sex rehab stint. Not a single question will be about his game, for a long time! Some of my critics (yes, I have a critic or two) say that if Tiger has been living this double life for so long all while winning major after major, why would anything be different after this?


The paramount difference is this: more people know what is going on now than a year ago. There was no need to ask him about his personal life because he kept it well hidden. Now that the scandal has become the business of every gossiper in America, he will have many more questions to answer and less time to focus on golf. More media outlets will be drawn towards Tiger when he returns, putting more pressure on him. But when has pressure ever gotten to Tiger Woods?